Announcement of Institutional Planning at Bates

This message to the Bates community was sent by President Clayton Spencer and Vice President of Academic Affairs Matt Auer on March 20, 2015.

Dear Members of the Bates Community,

We are pleased to announce the formation of the institutional planning teams. Many thanks to all of you who participated in the open conversations and information sessions held over the past few months. Interest in the institutional planning process has been robust and we are pleased to be able to accommodate a broad representation of students, faculty, and staff in various roles. For those of you who are not on designated teams, there will be many opportunities to engage with this work in the coming months.

Goals for the Process

The overarching goal for the planning process is to identify a framework for institutional decision making over the next five to ten years that will allow Bates to continue to evolve and adapt in creative ways, to lead in certain areas, and to achieve greater financial flexibility and sustainability. The planning process will be grounded in Bates’ history, mission, and core values while also taking into account both specific market challenges in the liberal arts and the forces that are transforming higher education as a whole.

Constituting the Teams

The work of the planning process will be carried out by four teams and a steering committee, with community consultation throughout the process. The teams, consisting of students, faculty, and staff, have been composed based on the needs of the team, individuals’ expressed interests, and other considerations.

The teams were composed based on broad outreach and an invitation for individuals – students, faculty, and staff – to express an interest in participating.

Faculty were chosen through an election process, organized by division. Teams were composed based on the highest voting totals in each division with additional appointments made for purposes of achieving balance of various sorts. All faculty participants in the planning process were drawn from faculty who stood for election.

Interested staff were appointed to teams in consultation with their supervisors and managers.

Students submitted statements of interest to the Committee on Committees and were interviewed and appointed by the CoC with additional appointments made for purposes of achieving balance of various sorts.

Timeline

The teams will commence their work immediately and will work through the end of May. The steering committee will continue work over the summer, and teams will re-convene in the fall. We expect the work of teams to conclude in December 2015. Opportunities for the community to engage with the planning process will occur throughout.

The teams are as follows:

Intellectual Life at Bates

Chair: Georgia Nigro

Staff: Matt Duvall

Team Members-Faculty

Senem Aslan

Matt Auer (Ex Officio)

Jon Cavallero

Jane Costlow

Matt Côté

David Cummisky

Alex Dauge-Roth

Nancy Koven

Team Members-Staff

Ellen Alcorn

Christina Bell

Mary Meserve

Dan Mills

Team Members-Students

Jeremy Glover ’17

Cira Mollings Puentes ’16

Erica (Jaqui) Veazey ’16

Educating the Whole Person

Chair: Stephen Engel

Staff: Genevieve Leslie

Team Members-Faculty

Rachel Boggia

Dyk Eusden

Rebecca Fraser-Thill

Margaret Imber

Darby Ray

Kirk Read (Ex Officio)

Mike Retelle

Susan Stark

Team Members-Staff

David Buckwald

Julisa De Los Santos

Gwen Lexow

David McDonough

Josh McIntosh (Ex Officio)

Team Members-Students

Kristen Kelliher ’16

Deshun Peoples ’17

Sarah Stanley ’16

Shanina van Gent ’18

Facilities, Infrastructure and Technology

Chair: Nathan Lundblad

Staff: Scott Tiner

Team Members-Faculty

Aslaug Asgeirsdottir

Ryan Bavis

Dennis Browne

Carol Dilley

Kathy Low (Ex Officio)

Adriana Salerno

Nate Tefft

Team Members-Staff

Kevin McHugh

Camille Parrish

Andrew White

Pamela Wichroski

Team Members-Students

Nikolay Stambolski ’17

Molly Chisholm ’17

Resources

Chair: Geoff Swift

Staff: Jeremy Cluchey

Team Members-Faculty

John Baughman

Raluca Cernahoschi

Hong Lin

Michael Murray

Mary Rice-DeFosse

Paul Shea

Team Members-Staff

Doug Ginevan

Wendy Glass

Randy Shaw

Jason Scheideman

Christine Schwartz

Heather Ward

Team Members-Students

Ben Wilentz ’16

Alex LeFevre ’16

Steering Committee

Co-Chairs: Matt Auer and Clayton Spencer

Staff: Christina Estabrook

Committee Members-Faculty

Stephen Engel

Rebecca Herzig

Nathan Lundblad

Lillian Nayder

Georgia Nigro

Michael Sargent

Robert Strong

Committee Members-Senior Staff

Josh McIntosh

Geoff Swift

Crystal Williams

Data and Technology Support Team

Staff: Becky Albitz

Team Members-Staff

Kendall Blake

Laura Juraska

Thomas McGuinness

Nicholas O’Brien

Ann Marie Russell

Thank you so much for your interest in this important institutional process. We very much look forward to working with all of you.